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Read all of Brian Martell's 2005 Coffee Articles:
Now There's a Grow Opby Brian Martell An intrepid entrepreneur in South Florida is embarking on an agricultural first; he is going to start a commercial coffee plantation in his adoptive state. As most of us who have traveled to Florida know, it can be quite hot and may seem like the perfect climate for coffee, but coffee usually does very poorly outside of the tropics. Using modified plants from Colombia, a strain that is acclimatized to Florida’s alkaline soil, over a million dollars of his own money and a favourable lease arrangement for public lands from the local government, Mr. J.C. Nadeau hopes to have the first ever commercially viable coffee plantation in the lower 48 states. The essence of the venture is to have more control over the cultivation of coffee and with the advent of plant modifications (genetic or otherwise) there may be the possibility of doing so. What is interesting about Mr. Nadeau’s scheme is that his impetus to grow his own coffee came out of his dissatisfaction of the quality he could get locally. So, thinking that the problem lies with the raw material, he started out with test plants to see if he could cultivate coffee in an area where the only coffee trees are of the house plant variety. The big challenge to the plantation will be the occasional killer frost, which can totally decimate a plantation if it is severe enough. This was the case with the Brazilian coffee industry which moved the majority of its production north (towards the equator) away from the cooler south, thus reducing the risk of having diminished crop yields from frost. Florida’s citrus growers know all too well about what a frost can do to a crop, and citrus trees are usually hardier than coffee trees. Mr. Nadeau’s plantation will initially count 5,000 trees, all imports from Colombia, with special raised beds to avoid the too damp conditions that Florida can be famous for. If his plan is going to work, there are a couple of things that will have to happen:
While Mr. Nadeau truly has the entrepreneurial spirit, the risk he is taking is high. Chances for crop failure are great while the ability to differentiate his product, if the crop succeeds, is small. This is compounded by the fact that his initial plantation will number only 5,000 trees, which at best will yield 5,000 pounds of roasted coffee per year. While the romance of being a coffee plantation pioneer is appealing, there are probably better ways for Mr. Nadeau, a retiree originally from Québec, to spend his million dollars. Certain producing nations continue to put out high end specialty coffees that are desperately seeking a conduit to the largest market in the world…the USA. While Mr. Nadeau may have a direct line to the American market, the coffee producers of the world have climate, expertise and a long tradition of coffee cultivation on their side. Questions or comments? Reach Brian at Brian@heritage-coffee.com © 2005 Brian Martell
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